Male sex hormones are called

Are your hormones in tune? Mounting evidence suggests that exposure to light at night -- whether you're asleep or awake -- might play a crucial role in cancer, diabetes, and obesity. The World Health Organization classified "circadian disruption" as probably carcinogenic, and light at night is considered by some to be an endocrine disruptor that may affect melatonin, cortisol, ghrelin, leptin, and testosterone. "Most people think, and the drug companies want you to think, that waking up at night is bad for you," says Richard Stevens, ., a cancer epidemiologist at the University of Connecticut health center. But that's not the case, he says -- it's exposure to light at night that's the problem. "If you wake up at night, as most of us do, that is a period of quiet wakefulness -- stay in bed, in the dark, and enjoy it," Stevens suggests.

Led by senior authors Dr. Siegfried Kasper and Dr. Rupert Lanzenberger, researchers at the Medical University of Vienna explored the relationship between hormonal sex-change treatments and a brain protein called SERT, which transports the neurotransmitter serotonin into nerve cells. The team found that administration of the male hormone testosterone in female-to-male transsexuals increased brain levels of SERT, while male-to-female transsexuals who received a testosterone blocker and estrogen showed decreased levels of SERT in the brain.

Neural injections of Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) were applied to males of both groups to test for neurogenesis . Analysis showed that testosterone and dihydrotestosterone regulated adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN). Adult hippocampal neurogenesis was regulated through the androgen receptor in the wild-type male rats, but not in the TMF male rats. To further test the role of activated androgen receptors on AHN, flutamide , an antiandrogen drug that competes with testosterone and dihydrotestosterone for androgen receptors , and dihydrotestosterone were administered to normal male rats. Dihydrotestosterone increased the number of BrdU cells, while flutamide inhibited these cells.

There are also many synthetic sex steroids. Synthetic androgens are often referred to as anabolic steroids . Synthetic estrogens and progestins are used in methods of hormonal contraception . Ethinylestradiol is a semi-synthetic estrogen. Specific compounds that have partial agonist activity for steroid receptors , and therefore act in part like natural steroid hormones, are in use in medical conditions that require treatment with steroid in one cell type, but where systemic effects of the particular steroid in the entire organism are only desirable within certain limits. [6]

Male sex hormones are called

There are also many synthetic sex steroids. Synthetic androgens are often referred to as anabolic steroids . Synthetic estrogens and progestins are used in methods of hormonal contraception . Ethinylestradiol is a semi-synthetic estrogen. Specific compounds that have partial agonist activity for steroid receptors , and therefore act in part like natural steroid hormones, are in use in medical conditions that require treatment with steroid in one cell type, but where systemic effects of the particular steroid in the entire organism are only desirable within certain limits. [6]